Are you kidding me??!?!?

Jews in Sarajevo

I find history interesting, and since my blog is entitled "What I'm thinking about today..." I decided to post this information that was just sent to me by the International Women's Club of Sarajevo which has scheduled a tour of the Synagogue and Jewish Museum in the old part of the city.

The first Jews were tracked in Bosnia in 1541, 400 hundred years ago. They were mostly artisans, merchants, pharmacists, and doctors. They built their own quarter, dubbed El Cortijo (the courtyard), in 1577 with permission from the pasha Siavush. The community built a synagogue in El Cortijo in 1580 with the help of a Turkish benefactor, in a building called Velika Avlija. By the end of the 16th century, the building where Velika Avlija stood became known as old Jewish Cathedral, Sarajevo’s first synagogue. In the 17th century, Jews of Ashkenazi descent began arriving in Sarajevo, fleeing persecution from Europe. The Jews already established in the city were of Sephardic descent, and the two communities remained separate until the advent of World War II.

A bad fate fell upon the Jewish community when the Austrians occupied Sarajevo in 1697. They burned and destroyed the city’s Jewish quarter, including the synagogue. When the Austrians were forced to return the city to the Ottomans in 1739, the Jews fared much better, and were granted officially recognition. By 1856, Jews had equal status before the law.

Throughout the next few centuries, Jews in Sarajevo prospered. The city became a major crossroads in the Balkans for Jewish life, and came to be known as Little Jerusalem. By the mid-19th century, every doctor in Sarajevo was Jewish, and when educated Jews began arriving from Europe in 1878, Jewish children began attending public school.

However, Jewish life in Sarajevo changed forever with the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany during World War II. Before 1941, Sarajevo was home to some 8,000 to 12,000 Jews. Deportations to concentration camps run by Croatian fascists began that year, and by the end of the Holocaust, 85% of the Jewish population of Sarajevo had perished. Many who survived immigrated to Israel in 1948 and 1949.

In 1965, during ceremonies marking 400 years of Jewish presence in Bosnia, the Old Synagogue, though still owned by the remnant Jewish community, was converted into a city-run Jewish museum. Originally built in 1581, the Old Synagogue was one of 15 that functioned in the city before the Holocaust, when Sarajevo was a major Balkan center of Sephardi culture, and the city’s 12,000 Jews made up nearly 20 percent of the local population. Jewish communal services were shifted to an Ashkenazi synagogue, a grand, Moorish style temple built at the beginning of the 20th century, which was converted to include offices and function rooms as well as a sanctuary.

Taken...

This movie left my heart racing and made me vow to never let Shelby be out alone again. It's only more scary because this actually happens. But this movie moves so if you like thrillers you should like it.

I can't believe these girls!

Watch especially at 1:59 and 2:21 - but the whole thing is amazing.! Thanks, Eric Henning, for sharing this.

I recently was lucky enough to be able to contact my cousin through Facebook. As I'm trying to explain to my kids what a first cousin once removed is versus a second cousin, I came across this very useful chart. It's written from the point of view of how all the people relate to the person marked as ME.

Things I Wish Were Listed In My Profile

I recently re-met a friend from my youth (ELB) through facebook and reading her profile reminded me of how many things I would love to do yet haven't. It has made me refocus on those things and built the desire to one day be able to list them in MY profile.

1. Learn an instrument other than the piano (which I already play). Contestants are the clarinet, the mandolin, the harp, and the drums. I'm thinking clarinet is the most likely.
2. Become comfortable in a foreign language. (I don't dream as high as fluency.) I speak some Spanish, some German (more once I refresh), some Bosnian (didn't focus very much) and a few phrases in Arabic. I think I will focus on Spanish since I know the most of that, but I could be persuaded to make it Arabic.
3. Own a Vespa. I think. Although every time I think about this I can't justify a Vespa over a bicycle. Need to give that more thought.
4. Read every book. 'Nough said.
5. Get involved with dog rescue, possibly even becoming a foster for dogs rescued from puppy mills.
6. Travel to places I haven't made it to yet: Antarctica, African Safari, Vietnam, Scandinavia, Nova Scotia, the British Isles and Alaska. The last I include because I actually will be there via Cruise West in September for my 25th wedding anniversary with him.
7. Learn to play bridge.
8. Learn to scuba dive.
9. Snorkel through every "Top Places to Snorkel" list I come across.
10. Have grandkids. Lots of grandkids. I hear that it's a blast.
11. Go out to dinner with my sister, her treat, the night she gets her Environmental Engineering degree.
12. Learn to draw.
13. Learn to paint with watercolors.
14. Learn sign-language. Almost forgot this one, but I really would like to. I plan to take classes through the adult education classes in Cincinnati while I'm living there later this year.
15. Take dog-grooming so I can groom Sophie and save my family some money.
    
16. Volunteer at Drake Hospice Unit when I move to Cincinnati. That idea was formed during the hours that I spent there with my mom.
17. Train Maya as a hospital volunteer - she's the perfect dog for that as she is so quiet, so loving, and a sucker for being petted.
    
18. Walk. Through beautiful cities. Hike. Through our gorgeous National Park system.
19. Visit the Everglades and the Keys. I think I might quite like Florida based on the time I've spent in Destin.
20. Volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoo. Maybe I could be a giraffussus trainer.
21. Investigate becoming a vegetarian or moving in that general direction. The fact that I so love the occasional steak may be a problem. I could give up meat on a regular basis quite easily. Saying I'll never have a ribeye again? I'm just not there yet. Maybe I should just start where I am. Oh, and fish. And bacon. Yes, I have a way to go, I think.
22. Learn to make stained glass.
23. Become an expert crochet artist. Emphasis on the artistry.
24. Get my degree. Finally. Without taking money out of the "mouths" of my children (literally, their college educations come first) nor time out of the life of my poor, sacrificing husband. Still working on figuring out how to do this so I get want I want (a degree in International Studies focusing on human rights) without the negatives to everyone else.
25. Up my productivity quotient. This applies to everything, actually.
    

Ellen DeGeneres ~ I Love Jesus But I Drink A Little (HQ)

Congratulations Ry!

I was all giddy today because Ryan told me of his promotion. It's fun that I'm still capable of being so excited about an event in his life when so much of his life is lived far removed from me and will continue to be so as he continues his career and starts his new life with his wife, Jenise. He is now an E-4, a Petty Officer. I have no idea what that means exactly, and how the promotion process works exactly, but it doesn't matter. I celebrate his good news! I've been promised a photo of the ceremony.

Rokia Traore

Everytime I "discover" a new musical artist, it makes me wonder how many other artists are out there that I may never even hear of. It all seems so random. My latest "discovery" (the quotes are owing to my awareness that the word discovery suggests a degree of seeking that never actually existed) is Rokia Traore. I am so enjoying her album Tchamantche.

Graffiti written by an unknown Dutch soldier on a wall of the army barracks
in Potocari, Srebrenica, 1994/95. Royal Netherlands Army troops, as part of
the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992­95, were
responsible for protecting the Srebrenica safe area.

I saw this poster on a wall of a local printing company here in Sarajevo. The fineprint underneath the image was very small and I had to get up close to see it. I had stared at this poster all through our meeting trying to figure out why someone would have this on their wall. Of course, once I was able to read it, the irony of this being written by a peacekeeping soldier was not lost on me.

ISFJ

In Honor of Dianne...

I recently ordered a book based on a phrase in the subtitle - "one anothering." (Authentic Relationships: discover the lost art of one anothering by Wayne and Clay Jacobsen) I loved the sound of that phrase. Today was my first chance to pick it up and start reading and I hadn't even made it out of the preface before I knew I would love this book. But this post is less about the book and more about...Dianne. The author pulls out of the New Testament almost two dozen examples of how we "one another" each other and as I looked through the list I realized that my friendship with Dianne includes, I think, every one of them. I have other friendships that come close - but only the quotidian nature of our Gmail chat (quotidian's for you, D) has allowed us to so completely, in my opinion, "one another" each other.

Here is the author's list of where "one anothering" can be found in scripture:

• Loving one another John 13:34
• Forgiving one another Ephesians 4:32
• Accepting one another Romans 15:7
• Bearing with one another Ephesians 4:2
• Being devoted to one another Romans 12:10
• Honoring one another above ourselves Romans 12:10
• Greeting one another 2 Corinthians 13:12
• Being hospitable to one another 1 Peter 4:9
• Being kind and compassionate to one another Ephesians 4:32
• Sharing with one another Hebrews 13:16
• Carrying one another's burdens Galatians 6:2
• Building up one another 1 Thessalonians 5:11
• Encouraging one another daily Hebrews 3:13
• Comforting one another 1 Thessalonians 4:18
• Stimulating one another to love and good deeds Hebrews 10:24
• Instructing one another Romans 15:14
• Admonishing one another Colossians 3:16
• Praying for one another James 5:16
• Confessing your sins to one another James 5:16
• Being of the same mind toward one another Romans 12:16
• Submitting to one another Ephesians 5:21

I've actually said this to Dianne before - Everyone should have a Dianne in their life.

Note to Dianne: My comment inbox awaits your snarky reply.

Congratulations Ryan & Jenise!

Civil Courage

At last night's meeting of the International Women's Club of Sarajevo a speaker came with quite an interesting background and mission. She was a journalism student and journalist who then went to medical school and became a cardiologist back in 1980. She lived her whole life up until the war started in Belgrade. I learned only this morning, through other reading, that our speaker, Svetlana Broz, is the granddaughter of Josip Broz. He is better known as Marsal Tito - leader of Yugoslavia.

Once the war started, she felt that as a human being she could not remain in her safe home in Belgrade while a mere 100-150 kilometers away people were dying. She set out to offer her services as a cardiologist to anyone who was in need of them. What she discovered was that people were much less interested in talking to her about their medical conditions than they were in talking to her about their own experiences with people with extraordinary courage who had helped them. These acts of courage usually involved someone taking the part of a person who was not of their ethnicity against a large group of their "own" people. Eventually, she put down her medical bag, so to speak, and picked up her journalism tools of recorder, tapes, and so forth. She went out and just let people talk and tell her their stories. Eventually they were compiled into a book titled Good People in an Evil Time.

Her mission now is carried out by the organization she is involved in, Gariwo. http://www.gariwo.org/portal/

They give seminars and 8 day intensive training sessions to the youths of this region (from Slovenia to Kosevo and between) on civil courage. Here I'll quote from their website:

What is civil courage? It is the individual's capacity to defend humanity, regardless of faith or ethnicity, in the face of negative authority urging him instead to harm or kill his neighbour. Righteous people personify this opposition to harmful social norms. Their universal message of choice and independence of mind - in other words, civil courage - fosters trust in humanity and urges all of us to reflect critically on our own past and present behaviour.


They bring young people together from all different etno-groups - ages 18-25 - and although they arrive very nervous, they weep at the end of the 8 days because they do not want to leave each other. They keep in touch and even visit each other's homes which apparently is a very big deal to their parents at home who are not keen on housing the child of their "enemy." A few of the youths have even started small NGOs of their own in their hometowns. The director of the seminars was assassinated on February 22, 2007. Dusko Kondor was his name. He was gunned down in his home, through a locked, bullet-proof door. That is what she told us. His family has been given safe-protection in an unnamed European country.

They are in the process of trying to establish a Center for Civil Courage here in Sarajevo so that they can "train the trainers" in order to meet the call for admittance to their seminars.

They have established a Dusko Kondor Award for Civil Courage that is apparently quite a hot potato. She is meeting with one family in the Serb part of Bosnia today to try to convince them to accept this award. They fear for their lives if they do and she suspects that it will be held off for a better time.

Her talk engendered a lot of emotional feedback from the Bosnian women who are part of our group. The raw pain in their voices as they emphasized a point she had made or told a story of their own was hard to listen to at times.

I was surprised at how much I still don't know about this area and the pain that is leftover from the war.

Lake Bled, Slovenia

We're off to Lake Bled in Slovenia today. This magical looking lake is somewhere I've wanted to go since we lived in Bavaria. I was not as geographically savvy back then as I am now and for some reason I thought Slovenia was on the other side of Hungary and that it was quite far from Germany. In actuality - where it will take us 8 hours today to drive there would have probably taken only 3 hours before. Oh well. This photo is not mine - it was captured from the web - but I will replace it with a photo that Jeff takes next week.

Heading Home...

Our last day we had to check out of our hotel at noon, although our flight didn't leave until midnight. We took the shuttle into Na'ama Bay which reminds me very much of an Egyptian Gatlinburg. That was kind of fun. We walked through a hotel I'd like to remember for future reference - http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/FAYHITW-Hilton-Sharm-El-Sheikh-Fayrouz-Resort/index.do;jsessionid=A32892755AEDA652C478C057F6606B03.etc21?ctyhocn=FAYHITW&brand_id=HI&brand_directory=/en/hi/&xch=1450348,ZBXTTAVBQQOOOCSGBIV2VCQKIYFC5UUC - it's also a Hilton but it looked much nicer and it is right on the boardwalk into Na'ama Bay's shopping area.

At the airport's metal detector, the guy with the wand also asked Shelby if she was married, how old she was, and why she wasn't married as he remarked that he too was unmarried. Can you imagine the TSA guys doing that at a U.S. airport?!?!? This was like her 4^th inquiry and at this point Shelby was pretty creeped out.

Now for the Learning Part of our Trip

We arrived at the domestic terminal in Cairo and it took an hour to get our luggage. AN HOUR?!?!? I was pretty panicked at this point as our flights had all been booked separate and I figured since we now couldn't possibly arrive 2 hours ahead for our flight, we were probably going to be out of luck - and this in the middle of the night. There are no signs from the domestic terminal telling you how to get to the international terminal, and there are more than one of those! Everyone I asked, as we rushed along, gave us a different answer AND wanted to sell us something. By the time we found someone to give us a ride to the right terminal I was practically yelling in his face JUST TELL ME HOW MUCH?!? That was what I was reduced to - I KNOW YOU WANT MONEY FROM ME - JUST TELL ME HOW MUCH!! It was a good 15 minute ride to the right terminal and at this point I was coming pretty close to losing it. The thought of being stuck in Egypt in the middle of the night and having to buy new airplane tickets because we missed our flight was not a comforting one.

There were two lines for security - one had a few people in it - the other had many people. I went to the one with few people and they refused - for no reason - to let us go through there. I swear it is one huge racket. This is all before we can get to the counter to check-in. The security guy then wanted to see our tickets - our E-Tickets - and I practically caused an international incident trying to explain to this moron that e-tickets, by definition - don't exist in a form that I can give him! As you can imagine, I was pretty worked up as I saw our time ticking away. When we finally made it through security, some guy had loaded all our luggage on a cart and taken it to the checkin counter which - I kid you not - was 10 feet away. Jeff asked me what I had that he could give the guy AS A TIP for ripping us off and I just turned away before I murdered someone. Found out later that Jeff ended up giving him $12 to make him go away because all he had was a 10 Euro bill. 10 Euro for carrying our luggage - our luggage that has wheels that we can easily pull ourselves - TEN FEET. Yes, I'm still angry even now. At this point I told Jeff that he needed to take over all conversations with Egyptians, including the desk agent, because I was going to get arrested if he didn't. We got our boarding passes and rushed down the hall in order to stand in yet another line for 30 whole minutes. I really thought we would never make it out of there but we literally ran from passport control onto the plane itself. Phew… As we sat down in our seats, and I tried not to cry tears of frustration, I told Jeff that there was NO #%^@b(# way that we are ever moving to Egypt. Egypt was top of my list before this experience.

SO - to recap - IF YOU GO TO SHARM - which I highly recommend - get a direct international flight to Sharm el Sheikh and save yourself all the hassle of trying to make a transfer in the hell that is Cairo Airport. And only stay at the Hyatt - yes, expensive, but oh so worth it!

Coming home was oh so sweet. What a sense of relief it is to walk back through your own front door. Happy Day.

the OTHER hotel

Hilton Shark's Bay http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/SSHSBHI-Hilton-Sharks-Bay-Resort/index.do

The day they returned from Mt. Sinai was the day we left the Hyatt to go to the Hilton. What can I say. Night and Day. The reason we had to change hotels is that after we had begun our travel preparations, our return flight was cancelled and we had to stay in Egypt for a few more days. The Hyatt was booked, as were most of the other Sharm hotels, so there we were at the Hilton. I think if we had gone to the Hilton first, it would not have been such a disappointment. I would call the Hyatt 5 star and the Hilton 3 star so it was hard to come down in the world. They do have lovely pools and while the food is…well…bad, it is included in the price of the room, including all drinks.

But the kicker? The unbelievable news that I was greeted with at reception once Jeff and Shelby were passed out asleep in our rooms? Apparently there was a MANDATORY $120 PER PERSON charge for the New Year's Eve Gala. My disbelief, which involved me staring incomprehensively at the desk clerk for 30 minutes, was complete. To this day, I don't know what we could have done to get out of it. We were checked in. They had my credit card. All the other hotels in Sharm were booked and taking a taxi door to door would have been excruciating and expensive. I am just sick about it to this day. We are not New Year's Eve Gala people and in fact, we went, had a quick dinner at the buffet, and were back in our rooms playing Euchre by 10:15 p.m. We barely stayed awake until midnight. I intend to complain, vociferously, to Hilton but I don't know what else to do. It's been suggested that I call my credit card company, which I'm also considering.

The rest of our vacation was rather subdued as I think we were all worn out, disappointed to leave the Hyatt, and resentful of the $480. Altogether our vacation was 12 days, counting travel days, so our exhaustion is understandable.

Climbing Mt. Sinai

The night after the Squash-Off, Jeff and Shelby left to climb Mt. Sinai. I can only relay what they told me afterwards. Exhausted from his games of squash, Jeff also got a vicious case of the hiccups. If anyone has never heard Jeff's hiccups, then you can't possibly know what real hiccups sound like. They sound as painful as they apparently are. He hiccupped for hours through the desert and arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai absolutely exhausted. In addition, he and Shelby were totally unprepared to climb SNOWY Mt. Sinai. They froze (and Jeff hiccupped) all the way up the mountain, which apparently came to 14 kilometers - half of that in the dark with flashlights. But in the end, they did get to watch the sun rise. Jeff said that God handed down an 11^th commandment to him while he was up there "Thou Shalt Not Climb Any More Mountains." He seems inclined to abide by that. Poor Shelby spilled her water bottle in her bag which not only saturated AND FROZE her Ipod but saturated AND FROZE her head scarf that she needed for St. Catherine's. Apparently when she took it out of her bag and shook it in the wind it froze in a solid sheet!

I think by the time they arrived at St. Catherine's (http://www.touregypt.net/Catherines.htm) to view the burning bush (apparently which was imported from the U.S. after a determination was made as to which type of bush it probably was?!?!?!??!) they had lost interest in that.

Highly Recommended

Ahh…Sharm El Sheikh. We woke up at 4 a.m. and the hotel allows you to visit the breakfast buffet, or what they have set up of it, whenever you need to. I definitely give them points for that as the buffet was basically ready for us. Our trip to the airport was pretty funny visually, I have a feeling. The taxi that picked us up was a tiny little sedan and the driver tied the majority of our luggage to the roof rack. I felt like we were in one of those Chevy Chase vacation movies with the bottom of the car scraping the road! When we arrived at the airport, it quickly became apparent that our driver had never been there before! First, we went around the round-about in the wrong direction and had to back up around the entire thing. Then he took us to a toll-booth looking station where he was informed that the flights to Sharm El Sheikh leave from their own terminal which is about 10 minutes away. Since we were on a 1-way entrance road, our driver then had to turn around and drive against traffic until we were back on the main road. Our confidence in him was increasing! But eventually we did get to the Sharm El Sheikh departure terminal and our wait and flight were uneventful. By 8:30 that morning we had arrived in sunny Sharm.

The Hyatt Regency has an airport shuttle, although you have to run around the parking lot and find it mixed in with all the other shuttles. All that was forgiven when we arrived in Paradise. From my first glimpse of the Red Sea from the lobby I was in love. http://sharmelsheikh.regency.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp It looks exactly like it looks in the pictures on their website. Just heaven. Our rooms were pretty far apart, but since the kids were located right by the ping pong / squash courts, they didn't seem to care. We had a beautiful ocean front room and ahh… just lovely.

While we were there we -

• Ate
• Snorkeled
• Ate
• Read
• Ate
• Napped
• Ate
• Played ping pong
• Ate
• Played lots and lots of Hearts & Euchre!
  
  

The snorkeling was truly incredible and felt unreal. The fish were so bright and colorful and we saw new fish every time we swam. The coral lived up to its name "The Gardens." The only drawback was that it was fairly chilly out of the water so getting in required some courage as you knew you were going to have to eventually get out and shiver down the pier. If it had been summertime, I could have snorkeled there for hours.

As could be expected, everything at the Hyatt was expensive, but just to give you an idea - a small bottle of sunscreen cost us $18. Note to self: Bring own sunscreen on trips!

Ate & Ate

No one alive has the willpower to be on a diet at this hotel. The food was absolutely delicious - everywhere. The breakfast buffets were big and beautiful and elegantly presented. The various breads and rolls were delicious and I think each of us ate a minimum of 4 at every single breakfast. There was a fruit bar, an omelette station, a made to order pancake station, all kinds of meats, and various other items that I didn't recognize. The only disappointment was the bacon which was made from beef, not pork - obviously.

Lunchtimes could have been more resistable if - believe it or not - they hadn't served some of the most delicious French fries I've ever had in my life. It's been a long time since I've even really liked French fries but these were perfect - hot, crunch on the outside, soft on the inside. Tandoori chicken and fries at Cascades Restaurant was my favorite treat.

We had a few options at dinner time and we almost explored them all. The Souk Restaurant is like an open market place. There is a stage where performances appear one after the other - dancers of various types, including belly. Then the tables are surrounded by various food "stalls." You're given a bag of coins that you can use to purchase food at the various international options and you're only charged for the coins that you use. It was fun and the food was pretty good.

Christmas Dinner was expensive (hah! Little did I know!) at $60 per person. The buffet was pretty elaborate, but I still preferred the breakfast buffet. Shelby was brave enough to try a Guinea Fowl, although I think Carl's the one who actually finished it. Another night we went to the Thai restaurant - the most expensive of the restaurants - and everyone seemed to enjoy their food very much.

Euchre & Hearts

I can't begin to count how many games we played of Euchre & Hearts. The only thing I know for sure is that I was the overall UNDISPUTED GAMES CHAMPION. We'll leave it at that.

Squash

The squash story is a story of a practical joke that backfired on us. Carl challenged Jeff to a game of squash but unbeknownst to Jeff, Carl scheduled two squash lessons for himself prior to the game. Shelby and I showed up to watch the game, thinking how much fun it would be to watch Jeff get beat by Carl "who had never played before." Alas, that was not to be. They played game after game after game and I'm not sure Carl was ever any closer to beating Jeff than he was the first game. Jeff was laid out on the floor, face bright red, yet still winning. This was to bite him in the rear, however, because…